Zimbabwe will be hosting the African Union (AU) and United Nations Wildlife Summit in Victoria Falls from 23-25 June this year.
Close to 500 delegates from across the world are expected to attend the summit, which is an opportunity to reflect on this important species as well as recalibrate strategies to ensure that appropriate benefits accrue to nations and respective communities.
“We are happy to host the first ever AU-UN Africa Wildlife Summit. We are looking forward to having a successful conference,” Environment, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Prisca Mupfumira said.
“As you are aware Zimbabwe is in the KAZA region and KAZA boasts of hosting over 60 percent of the world’s elephant population.”
The summit will also provide a platform to share strategies on leveraging wildlife resources to turn around African economies, according to the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA).
“We will discuss how wildlife impacts the ordinary people, how we can manage human-wildlife conflict,” Mupfumira said.
“We want to come up with resolutions which will be good for conservation and make sure people living with wildlife also benefit. So these are some of the issues we will be discussing. There will be various international speakers and of cause our own Zimbabweans will contribute in the deliberations.”
On the registered participants, Heads of States and Cabinet Ministers from at least 30 African countries have registered to attend the Victoria Falls summit.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa will also be among the Heads of States at the summit.